Bridges span the waterways and pools at the L'Auberge Hotel. A meandering lazy river winds its way through tropical landscapes with nearby seating offering a secluded feel. The pool is open to hotel guests only.
Photo taken Thursday, June 25, 2015
Kim Brent/The Enterprise less

Bridges span the waterways and pools at the L'Auberge Hotel. A meandering lazy river winds its way through tropical landscapes with nearby seating offering a secluded feel. The pool is open to hotel guests ... more

Photo: Kim Brent

Lake Charles casinos win $66.7M in July

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As the Golden Nugget in Lake Charles has siphoned gamblers from L'Auberge over the past eight months, the Isle of Capri casino has seen its gambling revenue rise to its highest point since 2012.

The three corporate Southwest Louisiana casinos won a combined $66.7 million in July, according to a Louisiana Gaming Control Board report issued Thursday. That is the highest monthly total since December 2014, the debut month for the $700 million Golden Nugget opened by Houston billionaire Tilman Fertitta.

Isle of Capri continues to grab the smallest piece of a pie made larger by the Nugget's opening, but it has seen more gambling winnings since then, while top-performing L'Auberge has witnessed a sharp summertime decline.

Isle of Capri took 18.9 percent of the market's gambling winnings in July, according to the monthly report of each casino's gambling revenue. L'Auberge held 47 percent, and the Golden Nugget had 34.1 percent. Those July shares are in line with each casino's piece of the gambling pie over the past eight months.

Still, in the first seven months of the year, L'Auberge's gambling revenue is down 4.7 percent year-to-date.

Through May, L'Auberge had won more money this year than through the same period last year. That changed in June in July, when year-to-year winnings were down 15 percent and 10 percent, respectively.

"The decline in Lake Charles was driven in part by additional gaming capacity in the market," Pinnacle CEO Anthony Sanfilippo told investors in July when announcing less returns from what has historically been the company's strongest-performing casino. "We are focused on prudently managing the property as the market absorbs the incremental supply."

Meanwhile, gambling revenue at Isle of Capri, located away from the market's heavyweights, is up 2.2 percent over the first seven months of the year.

Fertitta opened his Lake Charles property after obtaining Louisiana's last available casino license from Pinnacle Entertainment after the publicly traded company was forced by a federal antitrust decision to sell it.

The rival operators have said they anticipated the Golden Nugget, which features similar resort-styled amenities to L'Auberge, would bring new customers into the market - specifically, more Texans, who don't have hometown casinos because of a statewide prohibition.

Since the Golden Nugget's opening, the three casinos have won $502 million from gamblers, a 49-percent increase from what L'Auberge and Isle of Capri won in the same span a year prior. That total yielded $108 million in tax revenue for Louisiana.